99 Restaurants — Restaurant in Waltham

We arrived at the restaurant on a Wednesday evening at 6:50pm put in our name and were told we had a 10 minute wait. We sat down with some menus and a buzzer and waited. Some other people arrived and we chatted with another couple asking about menu suggestions since we had never had food here before. A lady who had just finished eating looked at all the people waiting with a big surprised look on her face and asked us, "You all are waiting for a table? There are at least 16 tables available, I cannot believe you have to wait,." We reasoned maybe they are short staffed. Then one of the couples who had arrived before us got seated. Then at 7:15pm the couple who had arrived after us got called. They were obviously surprised to be called before us. The nice lady went up to the woman at the counter and pointed to us and told her that we had arrived before them. We could not hear what was said but it was obvious she was trying to get them to correct the error. But the error was not corrected. So with some hesitation the couple followed the waiter to the table. Since they were a party of 2 and we were a party of 2 there was no reason for them to be seated before us. We waited another 5 minutes or so and we were still not called. We decided this could not be the type of service we would tolerate. First a 10 minute wait had turned out to be longer than 25 minutes. Second, people after us were already being seated. There was no guarantee that we would even be seated! So we went inside and told the woman at the desk we were leaving because of these 2 reasons. She apologized for the error and offered some card. We told her we were not interested in any card or discount because we had no intention of coming back to a restaurant with such...

My wife and I dine at the 99 occasionally, and in general, it's good food at a decent price. My last visit to the 99 might be our last for quite a while, though. Our level of disappointment is based more on false advertising that they sent to us, than on the quality of the food. They recently sent an email stating, "Order a colossal lobster roll or a hot buttered lobster roll and get a FREE THREE COURSE MEAL. This weekend only!" To my wife and me, that sounded like if we ordered a lobster roll, we would also receive a three course meal. When we tried to take advantage of this, the waitress clarified that we would not actually receive a separate three course meal - instead, the lobster roll would include two additional courses, making it, technically, a three course meal. She then chuckled, and said, "You expected that you were going to receive the lobster roll AND a three course meal?" Um, yes... Based on the advertisement, that was exactly what we were expecting. If adding on 2 sides was what they intended, the ad should have read something to the effect of, "purchase a lobster roll, and get that upgraded to a three course meal for free." She did not offer to honor the advertisement, or call the manager over. When I expressed my disappointment via the online survey link listed on the receipt, I checked the online box asking the 99 to contact me to discuss further, but nobody ever did. There are many choices for casual dining in the Waltham area, so we'll be eating elsewhere...

Was in the area visiting grandson & needed to grab a quick bite. Seated right away, decided on our choices: Country Fried Chicken & Southwest Fajita Chicken Bowl. Food came out in a decent time but service was lacking. While the food was done well (cooking & seasoning wise), our waitress was MIA & could hardly find her. I had the chipotle drizzle & jalepenos removed from my dish but only to have my whole mouth on fire still due to some spicy component in the dish. Didnt see waitress until we were halfway done with our meals. Asked her what else was spicy in the dish & she didn't know. The Fried Chicken came with a side of cranberry sauce only to smell & taste funny...yet server was nowhere to be found til this dish was more than halfway eaten. It would have been a 4 star review if our waitress was more attentive. While I headed to the restroom on the other side of the restaurant, she was there walking around aimlessly when we were waiting on our check. That would explain why we couldn't find her in the dining room. We'll definitely be back but will ask for a different server. This is one of the better locations...